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The 2004 edition of Retailing in China covers the current state of development and emergence of retailing in China as WTO starts to impact the industry. The report has continued to expand to include additional information and provincial profiles.
China’s retail market has begun to reach a much more advanced stage of maturity in recent years in the main urban regions. The fact that this stage has been reached so rapidly since the retail industry was opened up in the mid-1980s is testament to the rapid development of the national economy and the strong demand amongst consumers for better products sold in more consumer-friendly ways. The stage of rapid development in the key economic regions (the main cities of eastern China) has now come to an end, and market saturation is now being witnessed in these regions. Competition in these regions has intensified, and the need to be more accurately targeted to specific consumer groups is now much more significant. China’s large shopping malls have witnessed a downturn in sales and profits in an oversupplied market since the second half of 1996. It is reported that of the country’s 238 largest shopping malls, over 60% saw adverse sales growth in 1998, while 70 stores were in deficit to the tune of RMB 457 million (US$ 55.1 million), up 17% compared with 1997. Now that the main cities have begun to approach saturation, the retail industry has to expand ever outwards into the more difficult to reach rural regions of the country. Reaching sufficient numbers of consumers of sufficient wealth in these regions will mean more targeted marketing, and a greater focus on value-for-money retailing. The Chinese government continues to put a lot of pressure on the domestic retail sector to continue its rapid development. Yet, at the same time as making entering the market harder for foreign retailers, the government is still telling local chain store companies that they are crucial to boosting consumer spending and hence helping China grow. However, China’s internal market cannot just continue to grow in size, but must continue to grow in sophistication and competitiveness. It is here that foreign retailers have the expertise that Chinese companies need to meet the growing sophistication and value-for-money demands of China’s consumers.